Cagle's career spans 22 years at Time Inc., Entertainment Weekly's parent company, but he said it was his early clippings from the Abilene Reporter-News that got his foot in the door with the publication giant. He worked for the Reporter-News as an intern the summer after his sophomore year at Baylor University, where he worked at the school newspaper.

"The Abilene Reporter-News was a huge thing for me," Cagle said. "Those clips helped me get an internship with People magazine during the summer of 1986."

In fact, Cagle said he was at his desk at the newspaper when he received a call from People magazine and was offered a job after graduating from Baylor in 1987 with a degree in journalism and Russian.

Cagle was serving as the entertainment editor for the ARN and had just begun a new full-time position in August of 1987.

"Editor there (at the ARN) was just a title because I just wrote," Cagle said. "I got a call from People magazine, and they said they were short-handed and it was the holidays and a very busy time. It was my dream come true. It was great! I packed up and moved to New York a week later in 1987."

As a 22-year-old cub reporter, Cagle said it was his job to cover all the parties for the magazine.

"My big goal was to go out to the parties and get quotes from celebrities for the page called Chatter," Cagle said. "Here I am, this kid who had always dreamed of living the glamorous life at all these parties with Liza Minnelli, Frank Sinatra, Madonna, Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Ruth. You couldn't go to a party and she (Dr. Ruth) was not there. Dr. Ruth was tireless. She was at every single party."

Cagle said his new position at Entertainment Weekly is a good fit for him because he helped to launch the magazine in 1990 and worked there for the next 10 years as a writer and editor.

Cagle said he was offered the managing editor position in January.

"I took it because I helped launch it 19 years ago," he said. "I was always part of the magazine, and the magazine was a part of me. I loved the magazine."

Cagle, who moved to Abilene at age 11, said he hasn't been back here in a while but hopes to be able to visit friends soon. He no longer has family here.

While he remains in contact with several people in the area, one that he still communicates with and credits as an early influence on his career choice is Robert Holladay. Cagle was in Holladay's honors British literature class while a senior at Cooper High School and joined Cooper's Classic Film Society.

"I taught him what to look for in the films," Holladay said. "He learned about the actors from the past. I am so honored I was part of his life. He's as well-versed in classic films as he is in modern films. I can't say enough good things about him, and I'm so proud of him. Jess is extremely intelligent and very gregarious, and he loves people.

"I'm just so thrilled for Jess Cagle's success -- nobody deserves it more than him."

Cagle served as co-host of ABC's Academy Awards red carpet pre-show this year, chatting up celebs such as Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black.

"Abilene was an amazing place for me to grow up," Cagle said. "You hear from people in the northeast or in bigger cities that think being from a smaller town is a disadvantage, but I never felt that at all. There were so many extraordinary people and teachers that I got to know, like Mr. Holliday. I never felt any limitation at all."

And how does he feel about his new job?

"I can no longer say somebody else will take care of that," he joked.

Cagle lives in Manhattan and shares a country place in Hillsdale, N.Y., with his partner, Shawn Henderson.